


Goodbyes in Absentia

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M, Parent AU, post-The Invasion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-03 23:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16334876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: The Doctor takes the time for an extra goodbye before leaving London.





	Goodbyes in Absentia

**Author's Note:**

> for [keatulie](keatulie.tumblr.com).

Nodding to himself, the Doctor slipped the completed circuits into his pocket. A satisfactory enough job, he thought – good enough to get the TARDIS going again, at least, though perhaps not for very long. He would need to make a trip to somewhere a little more technologically advanced soon, to polish off the rough edges of his repairs. Still, he had managed rather better than expected here, with the limited technology of twentieth century Earth. He had known that dear Anne would have what he needed.

He rose as if to leave, but found himself pulled back towards the desk, reaching out to brush his fingers over a few pieces of apparatus as if searching for the ghost of her touch. The scene was familiar in a way that was both comforting and heart-wrenching – beakers and test tube racks and electronics scattered around as if she had only left the room for a moment, half a dozen different experiments frozen in time. But the familiarity was a false one, he reminded himself sternly. The equipment here had been set up by the hands of an adult, not a child, and he had not been here to help her, holding her up so she could grasp clumsily at the microscope. She hardly needed his help now.

Remembering the letter, he reached into his pocket and pulled it out, holding it over the desk thoughtfully. The last time he had seen her, he had been a little too preoccupied with the machinations of the Great Intelligence to give her a proper introduction, and their departure had been so rushed – in part due to his own unwillingness to face the truth of the matter, all that lost time between them. For all he knew, she wanted nothing to do with him. Perhaps she would not want to read the letter, to know who he was, why he had tried to visit again this time. Why she had been left behind – barely a few months ago for him, but so many years ago for her. That she was still loved.

He hesitated for a moment longer, but the sound of the door opening behind him startled him into dropping the letter, and he let it stay there, nestled amongst the glassware. To his relief, it was only Jamie, poking his head around the doorway to give him a slightly harried smile. The scene would have been difficult to explain to anyone else. “Are ye ready tae go? The car’s here.” Jamie stepped inside, his expression softening when he caught sight of the letter. “Shame she wasn’t here.”

“Mm.” The Doctor frowned down at Jamie’s bandaged leg disapprovingly. “You’re meant to be waiting for us at the hospital.”

Jamie snorted. “Some good that was going tae do me, another half an hour there.”

“ _Jamie_.”

“I wanted tae come back here too, ye know. Say goodbye.” The Doctor found himself unable to argue with that. After all – would he not have done the same, in Jamie’s position? Had he not passed up UNIT’s more spacious laboratories in favour of Anne’s for the very same reason? “She would’ve loved all this,” Jamie continued, limping over to examine the scraps of broken and twisted cyber-casings Professor Watkins had spread over his own worktable.

“Would she?” the Doctor asked. The scepticism in his voice was tinged with a painfully clear sadness, and he knew Jamie had heard it too.

“Ye know she would’ve. Always getting herself into trouble, that’s our Anne.”

“That _was_ our Anne,” the Doctor corrected him sharply. “We hardly know anything about her now.” He toyed with the corner of the letter, still absently entertaining the idea of picking it up again. Would Anne welcome the letter? The memory of his rushed explanations was still weighing heavily on his mind. Learning the strange truth of one’s childhood in such a whirlwind manner was hardly a certain gateway to friendliness, he thought despairingly. He could not have blamed her if she thought him delusional.

“We could wait for her,” Jamie suggested. “Stick around here, just till she gets back.”

The Doctor snorted. “I don’t think the Earth could survive me staying here for particularly long, do you?” Jamie shrugged, grinning. “Ah – I don’t know that she’d thank us. It is her life, after all, not ours. She might not appreciate our interference.” He had hardly been surprised to learn that she had left for America. Forever setting off to chase new adventures, that was the Anne he remembered, and that at least seemed to have stayed the same. She was still vanishing around the corner, just barely out of his reach. “She’s not our little girl anymore.”

“Aye, you’re right.” Jamie’s smile turned a little wistful. “They grow up so fast. ‘Specially when you’re travelling in time, and you’re no’ around tae see it,” he added, a touch of bitter irony creeping into his voice. “But even when ye are – ye turn your back for a moment an’ they change.”

The Doctor touched his shoulder gently. “You’re thinking of Victoria, aren’t you?”

“Aye, ‘course I am. It’s only been – ach, what, a few days?”

“Mm. I don’t suppose it helped to come so close to seeing Anne again.” Jamie shook his head. “But – but we have Zoe now, don’t we?”

“Aye, I suppose so.” Jamie scrubbed his hand over his face, seeming suddenly exhausted. He was still pale from the shock and blood loss of his wound, and the Doctor gripped his arm tighter to support him, realising he was trembling. “It just doesnae feel right, leaving Anne like this.”

“Well, I do hope she appreciates the letter.” Someone was calling for them from the front door. “Yes, yes, we’re coming. We’d better get you back to the TARDIS,” he added to Jamie, tutting disapprovingly. “You look as if you’re about to collapse. You should’ve stayed in the hospital, you know.” Jamie shook his head, but let himself be ushered out of the room, glancing over his shoulder to take one last look at the laboratory as they went. “We’ll see her again, you know, Jamie. It’s hardly as if either of us could forget about her.”

“Aye.” Jamie closed the door behind them reluctantly. “’Course we won’t. I just hope she doesnae forget us again.”


End file.
